Acting auditor says program mission and governance remain undefined
An audit of a Honolulu homeless assistance program that had already faced criticism over its effectiveness has been suspended, with the city’s acting auditor saying the initiative’s changing direction and unreliable data systems made a proper assessment impossible.
The suspension leaves the future of the Crisis, Outreach, Response and Engagement program, known as CORE, in flux. The program was launched in 2021 to pair social workers with EMTs on 911 calls for homeless people in mental health crises. The City Council last September voted to audit the $2.7 million program, citing concerns it had drifted from its original purpose of steering people off the streets and into shelters and services.
Acting City Auditor Troy Shimasaki suspended the audit 10 months later. In a June 30 report to the City Council, Shimasaki wrote that the program’s mission, service model, and governance had not been clearly defined over time, and that its data systems were too “fragmented” to reliably track outcomes.
“We found that the program’s mission, service model, and governance had not been clearly defined over time,” Shimasaki wrote.
“Taken together the problems that prevented the audit are absolutely concerning,” Shimasaki told Civil Beat. He said he could not recall a similar suspension, underscoring how unusual the halt is.
The CORE program has faced scrutiny alongside other homelessness spending in Hawaii. The state auditor warned in April of control gaps in a separate homeless-housing program, the Kauhale tiny-home initiative, which also faced questions about its use of emergency procurement authority and lack of documentation.
What steps city leaders will take next regarding the CORE program remains unclear.